Our first “Camp Outreach” of 2010 – a “mission” in America – is about a month away. As of today, 43 young people and families from all over the country are coming together to work in “Stringtown,” a very poor neighborhood on the near-west side of Indianapolis.
This year we have an abundance of work projects for widows, the elderly, the poor, the fatherless and orphans. We’re also working with the new local neighborhood association to engage people in the neighborhood to work alongside of us. Partly as a result of our efforts last year, there has been a huge growth in the willingness of the community to help each other.
One of the most exciting aspects of the Indianapolis Camp Outreach is our ministry to neighborhood children. We’ve been holding a monthly Sabbath “Kid’s Camp” in the neighborhood and have had as many as 40 local children attend with us. During Camp Outreach we will run an expanded version this activity from 9 AM to 2:45 PM where we teach children stories from the Bible, have crafts that relate to the values from the Bible stories, activities, music and food.
Food for the kids is important: we feed breakfast and lunch to neighborhood children during the summer because many of them rely on school breakfasts and lunches during the school year but have a skimpy diet during the summer. It is hard to believe that there are hungry children in America – but there are.
At the end of Camp Outreach, we are inviting the entire neighborhood for a Sabbath celebration of all the work accomplished. The neighborhood kids will perform a Bible-based play about “every day miracles,” the theme of the week. We will have worship music, some short messages and food.
For an undertaking of this size, we appreciate people and congregations to partner with us. Thank you for your prayers and support.
If you have people who want to come but have not sent in an application, go to www.CampOutreach.com and navigate to the form that is online. The deadline was June 1 – we can work some more in if we get the application right away.
If you want to sponsor someone or make a tax deductable donation, you can send it to Common Ground Christian Ministries, 7545 Rockville Road, Suite 200, Indianapolis, IN 46214.
Please keep praying for the success of our evangelism in Indianapolis – and for the change missions make in the people who minister to their neighbors in need.
Guy Swenson
Pastor, Common Ground Christian Ministries
317-707-5026
gswenson@NTEvangelism.org
Monday, June 14, 2010
Sunday, May 2, 2010
Moving Ahead
It continues to amaze me how many opportunities there are for becoming more involved in our adopted neighborhood of "Stringtown."( Stringtown is the first of the near west Indianapolis neighborhoods just west of downtown and the zoo.)
Our April outreach to neighborhood children had about 30 kids. Every time we do this we connect with more kids and become better friends with others and their families. Some of the neighborhood mothers helped this time with the crafts. As more people from the community become involved it truly represents a neighborhood effort to connect children with God and Jesus.
We added something new: music. Haun Dau and I played our guitars and sang simple children's songs with the kids. Interestingly, many of our kids had never heard some of the most simple and common of Christian songs. Now they have and when we closed our little "service" together we all sang together. I know, you never knew that I could play the guitar. Remember, I said "simple" songs!
In April my wife, Jennifer, with Stephanie Smith, Jeff Parker, Haung Dau and I finished our first series of English as a Second Language (ESL) classes for this year. We made some great friends and helping our Spanish-speaking neighbors learn English has been good for everyone. Now I need to learn SSL - Spanish as a Second Language! (Seriously, I need a good Web/computer Spanish language training package - anybody know a real good one?)
We're excited about Camp Outreach this year. At the Church of God (7th Day) ministerial conference I attended last week I was able to discuss what ministries their congregations were doing. Those congregations that were growing were heavily involved in ministries to the poor. With our friends at the Lord's Pantry and the new Stringtown Neighborhood Association we have more opportunities than ever in helping a poor neighborhood. In fact, I met the pastor of one of the Spanish-speaking COG7 congregations not too far from us and their young people may join us for Camp Outreach this summer. That may help us connect with a sizable part of the neighborhood in a much better way.
The Ministry House continues to progress. The plaster walls were all covered with sheet rock - now the big task is taping and mudding them in preparation for painting. What we have left is wall preparation, painting, putting in flooring (tile in the bathrooms and kitchen, laminate in the rest of the house), tiling one shower, kitchen cabinets, downstairs HVAC, the front porch, siding and landscaping. Sounds like a lot - and it is, but boy has there been a lot already done. It truly will be a great place for services, small group studies, education and helping a few neighborhood people at a time "reboot" their lives and get a fresh start.
Thanks to everyone who has been helping. If you'd like to get involved in our ministry or learn how to start an inner city ministry, join us for our "Camp Outreach." Some people can't get the whole week of July 11-17 off, so they are coming for a couple of days during the week or close to the weekend.
For years I was taught to focus on the intellectual side of our Christian faith. I can tell you that adding the practical, physical "loving your neighbor" aspect of a hands-on ministry has given new life to my beliefs, greater depth to my faith and excitement to my life. I'm not saying this as an advocate of being selfish here. Rather, I want to give credit to God for opening my eyes to see another side of His will. It never ceases to amaze me how much better my life and the lives of those around me are when I am more obedient to God.
If you are involved in a healthy ministry you already know what I mean. If you aren't, "dip your toe in the water" and see what God has in store for you. If we can help, give me a call or drop me a line.
Sincerely,
Guy
Guy Swenson
Pastor, Common Ground Christian Ministries
317-707-5026
gswenson@NTEvangelism.Org
Our April outreach to neighborhood children had about 30 kids. Every time we do this we connect with more kids and become better friends with others and their families. Some of the neighborhood mothers helped this time with the crafts. As more people from the community become involved it truly represents a neighborhood effort to connect children with God and Jesus.
We added something new: music. Haun Dau and I played our guitars and sang simple children's songs with the kids. Interestingly, many of our kids had never heard some of the most simple and common of Christian songs. Now they have and when we closed our little "service" together we all sang together. I know, you never knew that I could play the guitar. Remember, I said "simple" songs!
In April my wife, Jennifer, with Stephanie Smith, Jeff Parker, Haung Dau and I finished our first series of English as a Second Language (ESL) classes for this year. We made some great friends and helping our Spanish-speaking neighbors learn English has been good for everyone. Now I need to learn SSL - Spanish as a Second Language! (Seriously, I need a good Web/computer Spanish language training package - anybody know a real good one?)
We're excited about Camp Outreach this year. At the Church of God (7th Day) ministerial conference I attended last week I was able to discuss what ministries their congregations were doing. Those congregations that were growing were heavily involved in ministries to the poor. With our friends at the Lord's Pantry and the new Stringtown Neighborhood Association we have more opportunities than ever in helping a poor neighborhood. In fact, I met the pastor of one of the Spanish-speaking COG7 congregations not too far from us and their young people may join us for Camp Outreach this summer. That may help us connect with a sizable part of the neighborhood in a much better way.
The Ministry House continues to progress. The plaster walls were all covered with sheet rock - now the big task is taping and mudding them in preparation for painting. What we have left is wall preparation, painting, putting in flooring (tile in the bathrooms and kitchen, laminate in the rest of the house), tiling one shower, kitchen cabinets, downstairs HVAC, the front porch, siding and landscaping. Sounds like a lot - and it is, but boy has there been a lot already done. It truly will be a great place for services, small group studies, education and helping a few neighborhood people at a time "reboot" their lives and get a fresh start.
Thanks to everyone who has been helping. If you'd like to get involved in our ministry or learn how to start an inner city ministry, join us for our "Camp Outreach." Some people can't get the whole week of July 11-17 off, so they are coming for a couple of days during the week or close to the weekend.
For years I was taught to focus on the intellectual side of our Christian faith. I can tell you that adding the practical, physical "loving your neighbor" aspect of a hands-on ministry has given new life to my beliefs, greater depth to my faith and excitement to my life. I'm not saying this as an advocate of being selfish here. Rather, I want to give credit to God for opening my eyes to see another side of His will. It never ceases to amaze me how much better my life and the lives of those around me are when I am more obedient to God.
If you are involved in a healthy ministry you already know what I mean. If you aren't, "dip your toe in the water" and see what God has in store for you. If we can help, give me a call or drop me a line.
Sincerely,
Guy
Guy Swenson
Pastor, Common Ground Christian Ministries
317-707-5026
gswenson@NTEvangelism.Org
Friday, April 9, 2010
India Mission Report
This Sabbath we will be hearing a message from Brian Smith who has just returned from a mission trip to India.
A number of years ago Brian made contact with several Christian groups in predominantly Hindu areas. It has been facinating to hear Brian tell the story how these Christian leaders have taken into their care widows who were abandoned by their families.
In parts of India there appears to be a very different perspective about widows. Rather than receiving support, when a woman becomes a widow she is ostracized by her family. These Christian leaders have reached out to those widows (who are also of the Untouchable class) and provided them with food, shelter and are trying to establish work opportunities.
Brian has created "Kardias Ministries" (http://www.kardias.com/) to broaden support for Christians in India. Kardias is led by Brian and his wife, Stephanie, as one of the ministries sponsored and supported by Common Ground Christian Ministries.
You are welcome to listen with us to Brian's report at our meeting this Sabbath at 2:30 PM in the multipurpose room at the MTC offices. 7545 Rockville Road, Indianapolis, IN 46214. Contact Guy Swenson at 317-313-1544 if you have any questions.
Sincerely,
Guy
Guy Swenson
gswenson@NTEvangelism.org
A number of years ago Brian made contact with several Christian groups in predominantly Hindu areas. It has been facinating to hear Brian tell the story how these Christian leaders have taken into their care widows who were abandoned by their families.
In parts of India there appears to be a very different perspective about widows. Rather than receiving support, when a woman becomes a widow she is ostracized by her family. These Christian leaders have reached out to those widows (who are also of the Untouchable class) and provided them with food, shelter and are trying to establish work opportunities.
Brian has created "Kardias Ministries" (http://www.kardias.com/) to broaden support for Christians in India. Kardias is led by Brian and his wife, Stephanie, as one of the ministries sponsored and supported by Common Ground Christian Ministries.
You are welcome to listen with us to Brian's report at our meeting this Sabbath at 2:30 PM in the multipurpose room at the MTC offices. 7545 Rockville Road, Indianapolis, IN 46214. Contact Guy Swenson at 317-313-1544 if you have any questions.
Sincerely,
Guy
Guy Swenson
gswenson@NTEvangelism.org
Sunday, March 28, 2010
The Holy Days of Jesus
Years ago, when the apostles of Jesus were leading the church, they taught the disciples to stop their work and their labor on seven days of the year for special days of celebrating their relationship with God. These seven days are called "Holy Days" or "Annual Sabbaths." Together with the Passover, each of these days emphasize a special part of God's relationship with mankind and show, step by step, God's plan of salvation.
Passover begins at sundown tonight and starts this year's cycle of these very special "Holy Days." For the Christian, Passover has two deep meainings. First, it looks back to the time of God's deliverance of Israel from slavery in Egypt that culminated with the sacrifice of a lamb to shield each household from the death angel because of the lamb's blood on the sides and top of the door.
Second, with the sacrificial death of Jesus on this very day of Passover almost two thousand years ago, the life's blood of Jesus shed in His death shields those who have made a covenant with God from the "wages of sin" which is death and opens up eternal life as a gift from God through Jesus. (Romans 6:23) Each year we gather with other believers and follow the instructions Jesus gave to His disciples in John 13 to wash each other's feet and share broken unleavened bread and wine that remind us of the covenant we made with Jesus. (1Corinthians 11:23-33 and elsewhere.)
The Days of Unleavened Bread immediately follow the day of Passover. The seven days of Unleavened Bread begin with a Holy day and end with a Holy Day, or annual Sabbath observance. During these days we take all the leavening (like yeast and baking soda) and leavened food products out of our homes and avoid eating them.
Why do such an unusual thing for a week? First, because the Bible tells Christians to do so. The apostle Paul taught the Gentile and Jewish Christians in Corinth, Greece to observe the Days of Unleavened Bread. In his instructions to them he emphasizes the spiritual lessons that the observance of the Days of Unleavened Bread remind us of each year.
Paul writes, "Your boasting is not good. Don't you know that a little yeast works through the whole batch of dough? Get rid of the old yeast that you may be a new batch without yeast—as you really are. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. Therefore let us keep the Festival, not with the old yeast, the yeast of malice and wickedness, but with bread without yeast, the bread of sincerity and truth." (1 Corinthians 5:6-8)
Through our covenant with Jesus, His death and sacrifice on Passover so many years ago, He removes the penalty of death, atones for our sin and grants us righteousness through faith before God. In a real sense, the sacrifice of Jesus has "deleavened" us before God.
As our part of our covenant, we promise to repent of our sin which is rebellion before God and renounce sin. While the sacrifice of Jesus and God's grace covers all the sins we have or will commit, obedience to God is something we promise to Him. Putting leaven out of our homes and lives for seven days is also a physical reminder of the challenge we have taken upon ourselves to love God and our neighbors. Sinning against God, ourselves or our neighbors is not showing love, but rather selfishness, malice and wickedness.
As Christians, we are called to learn to do better and covenant, or promise to God, to work each day to put malice, wickedness and sin out of our lives. God knows how effective a physical reminder can be to teach those lessons and gives every Christian the opportunity to benefit by living for a week without leaven.
You are invited to join us in following what Jesus did, His disciples did and what the apostle Paul taught the New Testament church to do and put leaven out of your homes and avoid eating leavened food from Monday night, March 29 at sundown until sundown on Monday night, April 5th.
We will be meeting at our regular location on Tuesday afternoon for our Holy Day assembly and Sabbath services. The last Holy Day we will be combining with some of our friends in Cincinnati and celebrating these wonderful days of hope with them.
Guy
Guy Swenson
Common Ground Christian Ministries
gswenson@NTEvangelism.org
317-707-5026
Passover begins at sundown tonight and starts this year's cycle of these very special "Holy Days." For the Christian, Passover has two deep meainings. First, it looks back to the time of God's deliverance of Israel from slavery in Egypt that culminated with the sacrifice of a lamb to shield each household from the death angel because of the lamb's blood on the sides and top of the door.
Second, with the sacrificial death of Jesus on this very day of Passover almost two thousand years ago, the life's blood of Jesus shed in His death shields those who have made a covenant with God from the "wages of sin" which is death and opens up eternal life as a gift from God through Jesus. (Romans 6:23) Each year we gather with other believers and follow the instructions Jesus gave to His disciples in John 13 to wash each other's feet and share broken unleavened bread and wine that remind us of the covenant we made with Jesus. (1Corinthians 11:23-33 and elsewhere.)
The Days of Unleavened Bread immediately follow the day of Passover. The seven days of Unleavened Bread begin with a Holy day and end with a Holy Day, or annual Sabbath observance. During these days we take all the leavening (like yeast and baking soda) and leavened food products out of our homes and avoid eating them.
Why do such an unusual thing for a week? First, because the Bible tells Christians to do so. The apostle Paul taught the Gentile and Jewish Christians in Corinth, Greece to observe the Days of Unleavened Bread. In his instructions to them he emphasizes the spiritual lessons that the observance of the Days of Unleavened Bread remind us of each year.
Paul writes, "Your boasting is not good. Don't you know that a little yeast works through the whole batch of dough? Get rid of the old yeast that you may be a new batch without yeast—as you really are. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. Therefore let us keep the Festival, not with the old yeast, the yeast of malice and wickedness, but with bread without yeast, the bread of sincerity and truth." (1 Corinthians 5:6-8)
Through our covenant with Jesus, His death and sacrifice on Passover so many years ago, He removes the penalty of death, atones for our sin and grants us righteousness through faith before God. In a real sense, the sacrifice of Jesus has "deleavened" us before God.
As our part of our covenant, we promise to repent of our sin which is rebellion before God and renounce sin. While the sacrifice of Jesus and God's grace covers all the sins we have or will commit, obedience to God is something we promise to Him. Putting leaven out of our homes and lives for seven days is also a physical reminder of the challenge we have taken upon ourselves to love God and our neighbors. Sinning against God, ourselves or our neighbors is not showing love, but rather selfishness, malice and wickedness.
As Christians, we are called to learn to do better and covenant, or promise to God, to work each day to put malice, wickedness and sin out of our lives. God knows how effective a physical reminder can be to teach those lessons and gives every Christian the opportunity to benefit by living for a week without leaven.
You are invited to join us in following what Jesus did, His disciples did and what the apostle Paul taught the New Testament church to do and put leaven out of your homes and avoid eating leavened food from Monday night, March 29 at sundown until sundown on Monday night, April 5th.
We will be meeting at our regular location on Tuesday afternoon for our Holy Day assembly and Sabbath services. The last Holy Day we will be combining with some of our friends in Cincinnati and celebrating these wonderful days of hope with them.
Guy
Guy Swenson
Common Ground Christian Ministries
gswenson@NTEvangelism.org
317-707-5026
Sunday, March 21, 2010
43 Kids - What a Great Way to Spend the Sabbath
Good weather and Goliath sure brought the kids out to our monthly "Kid's Camp" at Anna's House in Indianapolis this past Sabbath. We've never had so many kids come and so many adults helping out. I am amazed how the kids just "eat up" the chance to hear basic stories and Godly lessons from the Bible.
The kid's crafts this time included painting styrofoam balls ("smooth stones"), a felt shepherd's pouch, a shield for their heart and trying to hit a Goliath picture with a little slingshot. (I know David didn't use a slingshot, but give me a break - can you imagine kids swinging a real shepherds sling in a closed room?)
We had several families bring their children for the first time. We're also starting to see kid's with disabilities come. It takes more staff to handle children with special needs, but boy do the kids enjoy their time together with others. For the past several months, Brian and Carrie O'Rourke have been driving 2 1/2 hours one-way to be with us. They and their four young adults have been a big help, as have Jeff and Julie Parker and their family and our local members.
We also were visited by the pastor and youth pastor from the Brownsburg/Chapel West Seventh Day Adventist congregations. Pastor Steve Manoukian is from Lebanon and he ran some children's ministries in Beirut. We have a number of common interests, including minstries and evangelism.
Finally, our Ministry House is coming along. We're redoing the porch. The old porch didn't have a good foundation and had bowed the wall of the house out. We're getting close to the final "buttoning up" of the inside, laying laminate flooring, putting in kitchen cabinets (to be donated from the Cabinet Barn in Shelbyville) and drywall taping/painting. We've also started raising funds for the siding. One of the neighbors has moved in to keep watch on the house - we appreciate people looking out for us in the neighborhood.
Enjoy the pictures from our Kid's Camp and the house updates.
Guy Swenson
Common Ground Christian Ministries
317-707-5026
gswenson@NTEvangelism.org
The kid's crafts this time included painting styrofoam balls ("smooth stones"), a felt shepherd's pouch, a shield for their heart and trying to hit a Goliath picture with a little slingshot. (I know David didn't use a slingshot, but give me a break - can you imagine kids swinging a real shepherds sling in a closed room?)
We had several families bring their children for the first time. We're also starting to see kid's with disabilities come. It takes more staff to handle children with special needs, but boy do the kids enjoy their time together with others. For the past several months, Brian and Carrie O'Rourke have been driving 2 1/2 hours one-way to be with us. They and their four young adults have been a big help, as have Jeff and Julie Parker and their family and our local members.
We also were visited by the pastor and youth pastor from the Brownsburg/Chapel West Seventh Day Adventist congregations. Pastor Steve Manoukian is from Lebanon and he ran some children's ministries in Beirut. We have a number of common interests, including minstries and evangelism.
Finally, our Ministry House is coming along. We're redoing the porch. The old porch didn't have a good foundation and had bowed the wall of the house out. We're getting close to the final "buttoning up" of the inside, laying laminate flooring, putting in kitchen cabinets (to be donated from the Cabinet Barn in Shelbyville) and drywall taping/painting. We've also started raising funds for the siding. One of the neighbors has moved in to keep watch on the house - we appreciate people looking out for us in the neighborhood.
Enjoy the pictures from our Kid's Camp and the house updates.
Guy Swenson
Common Ground Christian Ministries
317-707-5026
gswenson@NTEvangelism.org
Ministry House - a New Front Porch In Progress - There Will Be a Gabled End Built
Sunday, March 14, 2010
English as a Second Language for the Neighborhood
Two weeks ago, Julie Malloy from the Lord's Pantry came upstairs and was crying. She wasn't mad or frustrated. She was hearing my wife Jennifer leading an ESL class and our Spanish speaking immigrant neighbors speaking English. It was a long time dream of hers that was happening.
Some months ago Julie had shared her desire with us to see English teaching offered to the immigrants in the neighborhood. Not knowing English was an obstacle to work, shopping and becoming a more integral part of the neighborhood. We had also seen the same need.
My wife, Jennifer has taught English as a Second Language (ESL) in West Virginia and in Brownsburg, Indiana. There are now two ESL classes being taught in the neighborhood - an afternoon class of about 15 that Jennifer leads and a second class of about 21 led by a Butler University professor and his students on Thursday evening.
Stephanie Smith, Jeff Parker and I help out in Jennifer's class. We've gotten to know some wonderful people from the neighborhood who really appreciate someone helping them develop better English language skills. I'm including some pictures from the ESL classes.
Next Sabbath is our monthly "Kid's Camp" with the neighborhood children. We're looking forward to seeing the kids - "David and Goliath" is on tap!
Finally, we've gotten the last of the bulk orders from congregations for the booklet "If God So Loved the World, Why Are So Many People Going to Hell?" We will be sending it to the printer and look forward to distributing it.
Guy Swenson,
Common Ground Christian Ministries.
317-707-5026
Friday, February 26, 2010
Burglars Break Into Common Ground Ministry House, But Maybe God Has a Sense of Humor
I got a call Tuesday morning from Troy. The Common Ground ministry house our ministries are rehabbing was burglarized. The police had been called - I jumped into the van and drove downtown to see what had happened. Little did I know that this would turn into a funny morning.
It wasn't funny that the burglars had broken the kitchen window, crawled in and stole ladders, tools, some building supplies and did some vandalism. We lost $500-$600 worth of materials. I had been assembling the components for a burglar alarm - just didn't get it all together in time.
One of our neighbors had scared of some burglars from the house next door on Monday, so Troy took most of his tools out that evening. Saved us big time from having a much bigger loss.
The funny part was what happened to one of the burglars.
We aren't discouraged. There is a price to pay for anything that is worthwhile doing, including working in a poor neighborhood. We love the people, but there are some whose drug addictions and wickedness cause them to wreck havoc and prey on the poor. A few druggies can steal from so many people that they create a crime wave.
For those of you who are Christians, please pray for our success. We're buying new ladders and tools, fixing the damage and replacing the stolen building materials. So many of our new friends in the neighborhood have had things stolen from them - one of them joked with me saying "Welcome to the neighborhood!"
We're focusing on making something good out of this. The previous week we had our first meeting to begin a neighborhood association. During the meeting it was said that people in this neighborhood haven't established an effective neighborhood crime watch because they feel the police treat those reporting crimes as potential criminals themselves. I hope a neighborhood association can come together so we can begin breaking down some of those walls and start "community" policing practices.
We now can speak as a neighbor who has also suffered from thieves.
It still strikes me as funny when a burglar falls through a floor - and ends up straddling a floor joist. I don't know if God had any direct part of it, but there is humor when somebody stealing from a ministry house ends up paying an immediate price for his wicked action.
Let's see what happens next...
Guy Swenson
Pastor
gwenson@NTEvangelism.org
317-707-5026
PS: Services this week - same time, same place!
It wasn't funny that the burglars had broken the kitchen window, crawled in and stole ladders, tools, some building supplies and did some vandalism. We lost $500-$600 worth of materials. I had been assembling the components for a burglar alarm - just didn't get it all together in time.
One of our neighbors had scared of some burglars from the house next door on Monday, so Troy took most of his tools out that evening. Saved us big time from having a much bigger loss.
The funny part was what happened to one of the burglars.
I went into the house, looked around and saw a bunch of insulation on the floor. Looking up, I saw this:
As part of the rehabbing we are leveling the floors upstairs. Part of the process is to pull the floor boards. We had put insulation between the joists - like this:
The burglars were going from room to room looking for things to steal - and stepped into this one, perhaps thinking there was a gray carpet. The first step was onto that piece of plywood, the second was to a floor joist - and then he slid off as one foot went to the right of the joist and the other went to the left of the joist.
One can only imagine the look on the burglar's face as he fell through the floor, only to be stopped by the floor joist between his legs. We think the third hole came as he was struggling to get out of his predicament.
We figure he got pretty mad and limped into the next room - and kicked what looked like a sheetrock wall. However, we had put sheetrock over a lath and plaster wall - a lot like kicking a concrete wall.
For those of you who are Christians, please pray for our success. We're buying new ladders and tools, fixing the damage and replacing the stolen building materials. So many of our new friends in the neighborhood have had things stolen from them - one of them joked with me saying "Welcome to the neighborhood!"
We're focusing on making something good out of this. The previous week we had our first meeting to begin a neighborhood association. During the meeting it was said that people in this neighborhood haven't established an effective neighborhood crime watch because they feel the police treat those reporting crimes as potential criminals themselves. I hope a neighborhood association can come together so we can begin breaking down some of those walls and start "community" policing practices.
We now can speak as a neighbor who has also suffered from thieves.
It still strikes me as funny when a burglar falls through a floor - and ends up straddling a floor joist. I don't know if God had any direct part of it, but there is humor when somebody stealing from a ministry house ends up paying an immediate price for his wicked action.
Let's see what happens next...
Guy Swenson
Pastor
gwenson@NTEvangelism.org
317-707-5026
PS: Services this week - same time, same place!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)